The Springfield Park District has frozen spending after discovering more than $165,000 has been paid out since 2010 to employees for unused vacation time.Mark Bartolozzi, director of finance and human

If you drive drunk in Sangamon County, you’re less likely to get caught than you were a few years ago. And you’re less likely to lose your license.Since the early 1980s, lawmakers in the L

Hundreds of customers, vendors and employees didn’t get paid by THR and Associates. Car dealer Todd Green wasn’t one of them.During recent testimony in the bankruptcy case of the failed Sp

In what might be a first in the nation, the University of Illinois Springfield has established an academic program called Liberty Studies.Students won’t be able to major in the subject, but the

Mark McGwire's 70th home run ball. A guitar once owned by Eric Clapton. A model of the Starship Enterprise. These are among the items that an appraiser used in 2007 to establish the value of

A coal mining company that has fast become one of the state’s largest is crying foul over the threat of a lawsuit from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.Macoupin Energy, a subsidiary

Pete Rose’s rookie baseball card. A stuffed beaver. A signed photograph of Ronald Reagan asleep on a hammock. Dozens of antique swords. A plastic tub filled with home pregnancy tests.Such is the

Michael Stratton is out as executive director of the Springfield Park District.

Here’s a sampling of what’s on the auction block from the failed empire of Jeffrey Parsons, proprietor of THR and Associates, which is now in bankruptcy. Goods range from taxidermy to pregnancy tests to dog costumes to baseball memorabilia to toys to Parsons’ desk.

Springfield Park District executive director Michael Stratton is under scrutiny for taking more than $2,000 in apparently unauthorized advances on salary, according to multiple sources. Meanwhile, a park district board member says he will resign in the wake of an unpublicized meeting of the board on the matter that was held Monday behind closed doors.